Macquarie Radio Network has taken the unprecedented move of suspending all advertising on the Alan Jones breakfast show, accusing campaigners against the show of censorship and cyber bullying of advertisers.

The announcement was accompanied by a lengthy statement from Macquarie Radio Network boss Russell Tate accusing opponents of Jones of “21st Century censorship, via cyber bullying”.

Tate’s comments:

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“The nature, tone and volume of the reaction to Jones’ remarks, and in particular the threats being made through social media to companies advertising in Jones’ program and the disruption being caused to their businesses, have made it necessary for MRN to call some ‘time out”.

“Some simple facts need to be acknowledged.

“There is almost universal agreement that Jones’ remarks were unacceptable, wrong and inexcusable. Alan himself acknowledged that from the moment he first advised me of them. He immediately arranged a media conference to state that publicly and apologise to the Prime Minister.

“Although the remarks were not made on 2GB, our position from the outset has been that a personal, unconditional apology was a necessary and appropriate response. I encouraged Alan to repeat the apology on 2GB when he first returned to air last Tuesday morning following his media conference. His apology was unambiguous and unconditional. He has revisited his apology many times in subsequent broadcasts.

“Alan Jones’ audience, those who listen regularly to his program, also agree that his remarks were unacceptable. From research we have conducted over this weekend with them, it is also clear though the great majority acknowledge his apology and have not significantly changed their attitude towards the Alan Jones Breakfast Show.

“Importantly, nor is there any indication from regular listeners that their attitudes towards companies advertising in the program has changed adversely.

“Since we now know these things to be fact, we have to conclude that the avalanche of telephone, email and facebook demands to our advertisers to “boycott” the Alan Jones Breakfast Show, and the threats to destroy their businesses if they don’t comply, are coming almost entirely from people who do not listen to Alan Jones or 2GB at all – probably never have done and never will.

“Now in Australia these people of course have the right to express their views to anybody who wants to listen, about any subject they want, including Alan Jones and his radio show. They also have the right and plenty of choice; freedom of choice, to listen to any of the hundreds, in this digital age, thousands of radio programs available to them.

“What they do not have the right to do is on the one hand decide for our listeners who and what they are going to hear on the radio station they choose to listen to, and on the other hand decide for Australian based companies which media outlets they will or won’t use to advertise their products and services. They do not have the right to interfere with freedom of choice and they do not have the right to attempt to censor – not Alan Jones, not this radio network, not the people who choose to listen to it and not the companies who choose to advertise on it.

“What we are seeing here is 21st Century censorship, via cyber-bullying.

“As a talk-station we openly advocate debate. Talk radio is arguably the original form of social media. The difference between 2GB and some catchy URL is that MRN operates in a regulated media environment.

“We hold ourselves, and are held, to account on many levels. We operate within a long established regulatory guidelines and rules. We’re accountable to the regulatory authorities for our license to operate; to our listeners who have the freedom to leave us any time they want; to our advertisers who will leave us if our listeners do; to our shareholders who will show staff and management the door when the advertisers disappear.

“We are happy to listen to any constructive criticism of what we are doing. We do it every day, often live on-air. But strangely we have heard very little on this issue from the same social media groups which are attempting to destroy the companies who have the hide to advertise with the highest rating radio station in Sydney. All of their focus is destructive. They are simply making life as difficult as possible for the staff of companies whose crime apparently is advertising on Sydney’s highest rating breakfast radio show.

“How hard is it to work out that those companies do not choose to advertise in the Alan Jones Breakfast Show because they agree with all of his views and everything he says. They advertise in the Show only because they want to engage with the massive audience who listens to him – an audience which has dominated the ratings in the Sydney market for over a decade. An audience which chooses to listen and an audience which, if and when it decides it has had enough of Alan Jones and goes somewhere else, will be closely followed by those same companies.

“We have taken this unprecedented decision to suspend advertising in the Alan Jones Breakfast Show until further notice so that all of our advertisers are on an equal footing, can regroup and discuss with us the way forward and how we together deal with these attempts to damage great Australian businesses. We’ll be doing that over the next week or so and I would personally also welcome discussion with representatives of the organisations behind the totally unwarranted pressure being put on our advertisers. But any discussion will need to be face to face, not hiding behind a keyboard.

“The decision obviously comes at a very significant short term cost to MRN. It is an insignificant price to pay for our audience to be able to listen to what they choose to listen to, and for Australian companies to advertise where they choose to advertise.”

Is it me or does Russell Tate fail to grasp that 2GB could have MORE listeners if it wasn’t for Alan Jones. The “Father died of shame” comment was the straw that broke the camels back but remember whilst this comment WAS made during a private function…the Chaff bag comment, the guillotine comment, the incite to riot comment and also the comments regarding Climate Change in which the ACMA found Jones to be misleading the publci VIA 2GB were not.

Stop playing innocent Russell. AJ is well past his use by date. He’s an embarassement to Australia on BOTH sides of politics

The thing is that advertisers have had to weigh the potential loss of business from people who don’t listen to Jones or 2GB and never will, but WILL boycott their products, against those who do listen to Jones and won’t boycott their products. No contest in the current climate.

Tate is, of course, being disingenuous when he says talk radio encourages debate. It doesn’t; it encourages people to agree with the presenter or to get angry at him. Dissenting views never get much of an airing. (All the lefties can listen to the ABC, after all.)

And what’s the difference between hiding behind a keyboard and hiding behind a microphone?

“What we are seeing here is 21st Century censorship, via cyber-bullying.”

Russell Tate really doesn’t understand the new media environment of accountability. I suspect the companies withdrew advertising only partly due to customer pressure. Companies are made up of reasonable people (mostly) and many of these people would have been appalled at Alan Jones’ comment too.

What point is anything in this world if we don’t treat each other with respect? Alan Jones shouldn’t have apologised, he should have resigned.

Maybe, just maybe, some of those companies who have pulled their advertising did so because they themselves regarded Alan Jones remarks about the Prime Minister of Australia as unacceptable but you give them no credit for that. I can certainly understand companies advertising with a radio station that has a widespread reach but being associated with Alan Jones does more damage to these companies than being able to reach consumers. They have weighed up the advantages and disadvantages and come down on the side of decency.

Jones’s comment about Mr Gillard was simply the last straw, even to non-aligned swing voters such as myself.

And unfortunately you don’t have to listen to Alan Jones’s program to be aware of his attitudes and opinions. Many of his actions go way beyond simple freedom of speech and merely offending people. Here are some mostly prosecutable instances: plagiarism, verbal attacks, contempt of court, defamation, the infamous “cash for comment” revelations, racial vilification, incitement to riot, personally endorsing 2 companies which folded under suspicious circumstances, breaching the commercial radio code of conduct.

Mr Jones obviously thinks he can say whatever he wants about whoever and whatever he likes – in a public forum – with cavalier impunity. We’re just saying he can’t.

The increasingly popular “Destroy the Joint” (a term coined my Mr Jones himself to denigrate women in public office) movement has not been threatening to destroy the businesses of the advertisers on his show – we have simply been letting those advertisers know that their continued support of his program is leading us to spend our dollars elsewhere. This choice is a basic consumer right.

Great stance by 2GB, very smart and a good way to suck the oxygen out of the debate. They’ll get back stronger and faster on the back of this.

@Shelly and Marian you’re kidding yourselves – the ONLY reason any advertiser has blinked here is because of the noisy rabble, and it’s become a game of one-upmanship as to which advertiser can grab a bit more of the spotlight by going Jones/2GB harder than the rest.

And Shelly, you should qualify your idealistic sounding view of the “new media environment of accountability” with the word “selective”.

There’s a lot more going on in the world that warrants our attention than this storm in a teacup fanned by a narrow but loud group who have it in for Jones and will use any opportunity to smash him – the rest of you are playing right into their hands.

How does a stupid throwaway line at a supposedly private function stack up against the arrest of a union official and former president of the Labor party accused of the misuse of up to $20m of member funds…….bit of perspective please people.

Generally speaking people did not “hide behind the keyboard” as they contacted the advertisers via email and facebook – both of which revealed who they were. Some phoned. It seems to me that Tate may not have read the statements issued by many advertisers who have withdrawn their support. They felt strongly that this LATEST comment went way way too far and they wanted to distance themselves. Perhaps Tate needs to read some of those comments.

I’m not sure why Tate thinks that AJ gets freedom to express his views and the rest of Australia can’t? And as for his comments being at a private function? That makes no difference all all, it’s only an attempt by 2GB to distance themselves. And as for AJ’s apology, as has been said, if it had been sincere and heartfelt then it would have done something to repair the damage.

However I am hardly a cyber-bully. I listen to the radio as a potter around in my shed, in which I also have an old stained, and dusty laptop, on which I occasionally vent my spleen.’

In days of old (1999) I would have promised myself to write vigorous letters to the CEO’s of advertisers on Jones’ or Laws’ program, but now protesting is so much easier with the internet.

In fact I don’t even live in Sydney! So small has the world become that I can protest from afar and rely on cyberspace to let me know if companies are honouring the commitments they make to NOT advertise with Alan Jones.

Seriously though, I would love to hear what 2GB sounds like with no commercials.. Oh Wait.. Maybe that’s why they are doing it!

Rights? Even though I have for sometime refused to listen to the righteous opinions of Mr Jones. I as a shareholder of those companies advertising on MRN have the “right” to insist that these companies withdraw advertising with the MRN.

A line was crossed by Mr Jones some time back, this latest incident is a bridge too far. In response, a great number of people have reacted, whether this reaction is acceptable or not seems (to me) to be more about your point of view.

So 2GB, partisan talkback radio is the original social media? Last time I checked Twitter and Facebook allowed dissenting opinion. The censored bile laden love-in you call ‘the voice of the public’ is yesterday’s model. I hope your sponsors stay away forever. It’s been a long time coming.

For too long many ordinary Australians have simply put up and shut up with the degeneration of what passes for journalism in this country.

It took Alan Jones’ vile comments, and the subsequent non apology, about the death of our Prime Minister’s father to galvanize many into action, including me. I am not affiliated with any political party. This is my voice, and now that I have started voicing my concerns I will continue to do so from now on, until Australia reverts back to a land where it’s a fair go for all, where common decency reigns and bullies ‘man up’ and acknowledge they have stuffed up rather than create excuses and attempt to shift the blame for their appalling behaviour onto somebody else.

It is my personal belief that if a company or organization sponsors an event, television or radio program etc, they support and endorse that event or program. If I chose not to support that company or organization in turn, and tell them why, that is not bullying or threatening. It is simply me acting on my rights to chose where I shop or access services.

It’s not cyber-bullying at all. Those companies are free to keep advertising on 2GB, and free to lose the business of those customers who view Jones’ rants as ignorant, ill-informed, damaging and occasionally dangerous. That’s freedom of choice. 2GB seem to be arguing for freedom from consequence, which is not the same thing.

There’s clearly a significant number of people who believe that, if stations give currency to such views as “women are destroying the joint” and that the Prime Minister should be abandoned at sea in a chaff bag, those stations shouldn’t be supported in any way – and that includes with sponsorship dollars. Fair enough. They’re also free to communicate that to the sponsors in question. The sponsors then weigh the value of those people’s custom against the value of advertising on the station, and make their decision. It’s not actually possible to bully them on that point – it’s their decision to make. 2GB, in turn, can decide whether the show should exist independently of the value of the sponsor dollars coming in – which they clearly have.

There’s a degree to which Jones’ style in particular is founded on passive consumption and agreement; his universe rarely accommodates dissent happily. To talk about freedom of speech in his case is extraordinarily rich when he typically offers so little of it.

@Shelly and Marian, do you honestly think that’s what’s happening? I’d bet advertisers are happy enough to lose a few numbers if it means avoiding a potential PR disaster. That’s all this is and that’s the problem. This is the policing of good taste, an appalling enough notion, but worse because roles of judge and jury (and in this case executioner) are being handed to every self righteous bozo with an internet connection and a Facebook account.

Private advertisers quite rightly do what’s in their best interest. And if there was some tangible analysis based on more than just the overblown misrepresentation of public opinion on social media that supported dropping 2GB, I’d be all for it. But this is just a series of knee-jerk reactions on a massive scale that MRN does not deserve to be suffering for as it is right now.

Extraordinary how the very media who espouse free speech, intolerance towards opposing political / social ideologies, suddenly cries victim when 21st century people (social) media uses the same tactics.

@Rob…
‘How does a stupid throwaway line at a supposedly private function stack up against the arrest of a union official and former president of the Labor party accused of the misuse of up to $20m of member funds……

You’ve nailed it old sport! This nonsense is becoming less like an attack on Jones and more like a desperate plea for a sympathy vote for Gillard.

have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Gish to see how the right in politics and many fundamentalists, often use the well proven tactics of Duane Gish to cloud, confuse and insult the “oppositions”intelligence in debate by appealing to base instincts in the community. Most of these ideas fail in the thoughtful, but inflame the base instincts in the less thoughtful or red neck elements of the community. Alan Jones is a master of this technique. A few half truths repeated many times, a few mild but escalating insults and the reward of a huge audience and salary makes them feel that “God” is on their side and that they are the head disciple. Thankfully, in AJ’s case, the Australian community has bought him kicking and screaming back to earth. Man up AJ and Russell Tate. Take a good long look in the mirror

Alan would also be guilty above all, of misleading the youth,
a grave prospect for us all, that is the young liberals, who possibly
might be in government, taught hatred and vitriol, I fear. These white ants infesting the fabric of our society at the highest levels.

I’m a member of the almost 12,000 strong FB group calling on responsible companies to distance themselves from Jones and withdraw sponsorship. No, I don’t listen to the sexist creep and never would but I have the right to choose where I spend my money. And I won’t spend it with any business that sponsors Jones or 2GB who have continually allowed this man to openly incite racism, violence, bigotry and sexism. My daughters and grand-children deserve to live in a better society than the one Jones would like. This is not an ALP vs Liberal issue, it is a moral one and Jones has got away with too much, for too long.. I would be equally as incensed if the comment had been made about Abbott’s father if he had recently died leaving a grieving widow. But the point is he has continually targetted Gillard because she is a woman. I am a woman, so i won’t take that. We get to vote for who is in Govt, it is not called censorship or bullying. Now people power has enabled us to “vote” for what is acceptable speech from a high profile person who influences those who do listen to him. If that makes me a cyber bully, so be it.

Much more useful than the pathetic ‘if you don’t like it then just switch off’ arguments that the stations use to deflect from the actual power the audience has.

The correct response is ‘If you don’t like it then file a complaint following the correct procedure as laid down in the act.’ any other response is a breach of the code of conduct.

Since 2GB on being presented with complaints does not seek to try to follow the act and instead tries to skirt round it and since the decision rarely result in actual change the owners of the airwaves are taking steps to stop people paying Jones to incite hatred.

This is democracy at work radio kiddies.

This is market forces at work radio trolls and radio bullies.

Welcome to the new world where the audience is smarter than you give them credit for.

Alan would also be guilty of misleading the youth, that is the young liberals, who possibly might be in government, taught hatred and vitriol, I fear. These white ants infesting the fabric of our society at the highest levels.

Admit it Tate. The current manifestation of 2GB (2 Gillard Bashers) was assembled -or did it crawl out of a swamp? – to promote the right wing views of it’s owner John Singleton. By the way, where is the owner in all this?

Mouth-frothing, drooling, jabbering Alan Jones-haters : it’s time to put away your white sheets, pointy hats and cross-burning.
You’ve crossed the line between protesting and lynching, and are now nothing more than a tawdry, violent lynch-mob.

What? You couldn’t find an innocent black man to string up, so this old guy will do?
We know your type, we hold you in contempt, and when the government changes as it will, you’ll be held to account.

I don’t agree with what Jones said, nor do I like or listen to him, but targeting companies that advertise on a station and openly harassing them online absolutely amounts to cyber-bullying.

Trying to influence their right to advertise to an audience by making threats and starting campaigns against a company purely because it’s advertising, is nothing but harassment. I’d love it if these advertisers stood up and said “We’ll stop advertising on this station when people stop listening. Until then we have a job to do and an audience to reach…”

What these keyboard lynch mobs are doing to advertisers is only a few steps away from the abhorrent behaviour Jones himself is guilty of.

@rob
Are you the same rob who is managing director of 2gb? If so, it’s about time you finally said something publicly rather than on a comments section of mumbrella don’t you think?

For 2gb to play the victim game is abhorrent. Jones and his cohorts have made careers out of recklessly, and more often than not, cowardly bullying others. The backlash here is not just about Jones’ comments regarding Gillard but rather the result of many years of the arrogance displayed by 2gb as a whole. The opportunity was presented by Jones and now understandably there is a queue of peopl lining up to exert their power the only way a commercial radio station will ultimately understand … Financially! Live by the sword… Die by the sword.

If we are treating dear old Alan like a leper, if we are failing to bow to his superior knowledge, if we are failing to acknowledge his inner goodness and kindness then we are merely demonstrating we are evolved. We should be kind and gentle with this sad aberration of the basic decency of the human character. Send him love and kind thoughts. If we all do it we might suffocate the miserable prick and make the world a better place.

Singo loves what Alan Jones has to say, so I’m not surprised they’d keep him on air even if he wasn’t delivering revenue. Jones gets paid not just to deliver an audience, but to set the agenda and influence opinion.

Anyway, if it’s ok for Jones to call for the PM and leader of the Greens to be drowned at sea, then surely it’s ok for people to call for advertisers to boycott his show?

Seriously, this is HUGE, and exactly what social media is good for… AJ is antisocial, mysoginistic and a national embarrassment.

By tying it to the $consumer, there is a new paradigm at play – and it’s fascinating to see the boot on the other foot.

Even better, AJ’s good mate Tony ‘Ladies Man’ Abbott is being swept along with the outgoing tide and may just be caught without his budgie smugglers on… Perhaps we’l see Margie out there defending AJ next??

And I can’t wait for the T-shirt/POS/wobbler that says “THIS PRODUCT NOT ENDORSED BY ALAN JONES” … How about it Gerry? Or Banjo?? Nah, didn’t think so…

I have been on the receiving end of a few of these people wanting “guarantee’s” my brand wont advertise on 2GB for 2012 1and 2013.

I have to say the context in which the “questions” asking me what i am going to do is entirely bullying. Its pretty clear that if i dont commit to NOT advertising somewhere then i risk a pretty public flogging. I have been asked to give an official statement on our stance… which by that way i refuse to do. I dont answer to you.

These rent-a-crowd whingers are not doing themselves or the debate any good at all. I think i am able to make a perfectly good judgement on advertising with 2GB or not. It should be MY choice alone.

They criticize Allan Jones and yet have no problem resorting to bullying tactics and potential public action if a brand decides to advertise on 2GB as a station.

@The People… I think you missed the point here. It’s not about complaining whether or not a product works or a radio station and it’s presenter is any good… People can provide feedback on that whichever way they like. But should they be threatening and bullying into submission to get their message across? Isn’t that just behaving in a similar vein to Jones in the first place?

The point here is that advertisers being targeted and bullied into removing their ads, changing their marketing campaign mid-campaign (which if you work in this industry you know it is a massive issue to have to deal with), and most likely allocating resources to deal with an influx of stupid comments made by mug-punters that probably would never buy the product anyway (i.e. Mercedes).

The job of the advertiser is to reach an audience to sell their product…. Granted, if they’re advertising in a bad environment this might not be a great place to be, but we are talking about one show and one guy, on an entire station.

If channel 7 air a program that offends and annoys or is a broadcast platform for someone completely talentless (ie. Brynne’s bedazzled whatever), are people going to boycott and threaten the advertisers on the entire network, or are the advertisers free to advertise on the channel without idol threats and facebook witch hunts?

At the end of the day, 12,000 people complaining out of a country that’s 23,000,000 strong isn’t going to have a massive effect on business, but if they stop reaching their audience it might.

For the most part ‘the people’ in this social revolution say their bit and get on with their lives… shopping at woolies, sitting on their freedom furniture and dreaming of one day owning a merc.

‘So, let me get this straight. Getting paid a fortune to tell people what to buy is called ‘broadcasting’…but voluntarily telling companies what it takes to earn our business is called ‘cyber bullying’.’

Ann, maybe their website was down to correct Alan Jones’ biography which opens with “Alan Jones is a graduate of Queensland and Oxford Universities”. Jones went to Oxford in 1977 to do a diploma course (i.e. not a degree) and was back in Australia in time to contest the seat of Earlwood in the NSW state elections for the Liberal party in July 1978 (that’s some quick degree if it was one!).

So, could someone please enlighten me on the difference between a half-truth and a lie. I look forward to Alan Jones tirade berating himself!

@unlike You’re not being bullied so stop whinging. The messages you’re getting are merely doing some maths for you: advertise on AJ’s show and reach X audience who you might influence vs Y audience we’ll try to influence NOT to purchase your product.

Which numbers do you have more faith in, your ads and AJ’s audience or our network and the negative feeling he created?

Not bullying, 21st century marketing reality. Your audience is connected. Learn to live with it.

I was trying to think of a radio station in the UK as nasty as 2GB. Is there one? On another note this Alan Jones thread is generating a lot of commentary, like the LAFHA one did. Speaking of LAFHA does it run out this month? Can we have an update please Mumbles..?

None of this behaviour is very enlightened from both sides of the fence.

Remember when pilgrims used to burn placards and pitchforks and lynch-mob people they felt weren’t reflective of the ‘common decency’ of society at the time? Well, unless you’re Alan Jones, you probably wouldn’t, but we do tend to look back on the punishment being worse than the crime and shudder in hindsight.

I propose a different solution.

There must be a few people who work in radio reading this thread.

Now the real problem, isn’t that Alan Jones has a mouth and says what he says. That’s the puritan nanny-state way to approach this.

The real problem is people actually listen to him.

Give people something else to listen to! Create a show that’s better than Jones / Vile Kyle and take the listeners away from them!

Because to me, all Jones and Sandilands say, is that the vast majority of Australians would rather listen to them than the drivel that’s on MMM, Nova and JJJ in competing time-slots.

I think it is the right of people in a democracy to protest about what they believe in. I wouldn’t call it wrong (tapping up advertisers to let them know that they disapprove of where they advertise), if the protest is meaningless the advertiser will continue to advertise. This protest has meaning. The meaning is the Alan Jones brand is broken, the advertisers can see that and as a result have pulled their ad’s. (Pulled the ad’s because it will damage the brand if they don’t.)

If Alan didn’t tell lies, did give listeners who call his show with a different opinion a go, didn’t insult women, didn’t bully, didn’t rant hysterically and hadn’t of said what he said to a bunch of hillbillies at a young lib event – perhaps the sentiment of the people would be different and the dollars would still be rolling into 2GB?

Alan was dumb for saying what he said where he sad it. Fact is, Julia gillard like most politicians lie and put their career before the country’s interest. If her father knew of this I am sure he would have been embarrassed assuming he gave a damn about the country. Maybe she could have been more self aware and tried harder to make him proud. I don’t think shame killed him. It was still a cruel thing to say. I love woman. My mothers one. Bullies attract bullies. This is fun to follow. No one is saying anything about our politicians behaving like filthy mouthed conniving brats. Looking forward to listening to 2gb with no advertising! Awesome